Are the stock Goodyear 18's tires the same on both 2LT and LTZ? I have the 18" bright aluminum wheels.

Thanks for all my questions since joining this forum.

I'm not positive but I would think the the tires on the 18's would be the same if they are Goodyears. I have the 18s on mine and they are Goodyears.
If I'm wrong I know I will be corrected.

LTZ and 2LT come with goodyear LS2 225/50/18 as standard OEM.

I just bought a 2LT and it came with 17" Wheels bright Aluminum with Firestone Touring tires.

Thank you!

I'm envious. I have a "base model" Malibu, and to my dismay the stock 17" tires are Hankook Optimo H725A. Very disappointed that a car so important to GM's future would be shod with Korean tires of questionable performance levels. They stick just "ok", but these will barely last 40,000 miles. Clearly, a "low bid winner". It seems all the tire companies now make some (or all) of their tires off-shore, but at least the profit comes back here with U.S.-based companies.

I don't much care for the dry grip on these, and the tread wear rating is a paltry 340, traction at A and temperature at A. I haven't bought even a high-performance tire with this low of a tread wear rating in years. By comparison, a friend of mine put new Cooper CS4 Touring T tires on his company car, and the tread wear rating is 780, traction A and temperature A. These Coopers have an 80,000 mile warranty. Wow.

What are the various ratings of those 18" Goodyears and how do you like them?

I'm envious. I have a "base model" Malibu, and to my dismay the stock 17" tires are Hankook Optimo H725A.

I think it's a matter of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence. There are actually some advantages with the tires that come on the LS. They will be quieter and smoother than the 18" Goodyears and are probably better built. For some reason, Goodyear seems to have quality control issues with the LS series tires. I've had two cars with them as OEM and both needed all 4 tires replaced due to excessive radial run out causing balancing issues. They get poor reviews on tirerack.com and I feel are only average for performance but good enough for the way this car is driven. I will likely replace them with a different type when they wear out.

I know what you mean about premium tires sometime being not-so-premium. When I bought my certified pre-owned BMW, it had 4 brand new Pirelli 4-Season tires. The car had a vibration at highway speeds of anything over 65mph. After 4 trips back to the dealer for correction and book's worth of service orders, it came down to the Pirelli's being out-of-round. With $100 of my money and Hunter Road Force balancing, the new Michelin Pilot A/S tires made the car as smooth as glass.

With 16,000 on the LS2's i have to say they haven't been that bad. The wear on them has been good, but i don't really like the soft sidewalls when cornering. Will most likely go with triple treads or F1's for the next set. As for the Hankook brand of tire, everything i read about them has been good. Gm could have gone with those god awful eagle gt's for oem on the LS. I be glad to have the Hankook's over them for shure.

Just be glad they didn't put Eagle RSA's on this car. Horrible tires and extremely overpriced.

I've run many different tires in my 30+ years of driving, but the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S I'm running now on my other car are the best all-around tire I've ever had. I ran Continental Contisport Contact on another car and those were GREAT tires if you like a smooth tire with a stiff sidewall. Strictly a "summer only" tire though, not recommended for temps under 40F.

When we bought my wife a new Plymouth Neon in 1998 it came with Goodyear RS-A tires. Back then, it was a really good tire. I never once heard a peep out of them in hard cornering, and they had decent wet traction. That was over 10 years ago. Tire technology has come a long way since then.

The Hankooks are an "OK" tire. They're certainly smooth and very quiet. They do seem to have acceptable wet traction, though not as great as the Michelin by a long shot.

Last week I was getting off a 65mph interstate. It was wet, though not heavy rain. I had a Dodge Neon a bit behind me, but we were both a little hot for the tight off-ramp. I know this ramp fairly well. I braked smoothly but firmly until I started the turn-in, then let off and rolled through, as I know the ramp is slick when wet. The Hankooks just started giving me warning of losing grip in the front on the brakes as I let off.

The Neon braked similarly, but tried to too hard and it started swapping ends. I watched in my rearview as it's rear tires slammed hard into the curb and the car bounced up and kissed a guardrail with it's rear bumper. Ouch. Gotta wonder what tires and driver skill level were at play there. The driver (who I couldn't identify as to age range or gender) seemed to be just following the car in front of her/him rather than following the road. Like lemmings into the sea sometimes....

How well do the stock Goodyear's perform in the snow?

How well do the stock Goodyear's perform in the snow?

Marginal... not great. Not horrible, but next winter Im switching to snow tires.

I'll always run pure-bred snow tires up here in the Great White North. It's a night & day difference over even the best all-season tires. I found one superior tire that offers very nearly the same grip as my summer tires (not all-season) on my BMW and have only a tiny bit more road noise. The best part? Phenomenal grip in snow!

Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSi. http://www.nokiantires.com/tyre?id=11880&group=1.01.02&name=Nokian+Hakkapeliitta+RSi

Best I've ever used, and that includes Blizzaks. I got 4 seasons on mine now (over 40,000 miles) and I think I have one more in 'em. Pricey, but given the grip, overall performance and life, they're actually the cheapest snow tires I ever bought.

And no, I don't work for them. ;)

I'll always run pure-bred snow tires up here in the Great White North. It's a night & day difference over even the best all-season tires. I found one superior tire that offers very nearly the same grip as my summer tires (not all-season) on my BMW and have only a tiny bit more road noise. The best part? Phenomenal grip in snow!

Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSi. http://www.nokiantires.com/tyre?id=11880&group=1.01.02&name=Nokian+Hakkapeliitta+RSi

Best I've ever used, and that includes Blizzaks. I got 4 seasons on mine now (over 40,000 miles) and I think I have one more in 'em. Pricey, but given the grip, overall performance and life, they're actually the cheapest snow tires I ever bought.

And no, I don't work for them. ;)


What did they cost? I want to run snow tires in the winter, but I just dont like the idea of dropping a ton to get tires to use for only part of the year. Did you get separate wheels too or just change out the tires?

Some people just get steelies and mount the snow tires to them and store them during the summer. The cost is minimal as you can virtually double the wear on both sets of tires as you only use them half of the time.

What did they cost? I want to run snow tires in the winter, but I just dont like the idea of dropping a ton to get tires to use for only part of the year. Did you get separate wheels too or just change out the tires?

I bought a set of steelies/snow tires for my Mazda last year. After it was all said and done it cost $650. Not bad considering you could probably get 5-10 years out of them, depending on how many miles you drive.

What did they cost? I want to run snow tires in the winter, but I just dont like the idea of dropping a ton to get tires to use for only part of the year. Did you get separate wheels too or just change out the tires?

The Nokian tires I got for my BMW were bought used with "only 1 season on them" (said the seller) off of Craigslist....mounted on beatup but usable BMW aluminum wheels for $250. So thinking about it, they were/are good for at least 5, and possibly 6 seasons. Talk about a deal!

I have a set of cheaper Viking snow tires for my wife's Sentra, no wheels for them though. We do a swap every fall for the cost of balancing. I might get around to buying a set of summer wheels & tires for her car when her all-season tires are cooked. Then I can use the OE steelies for winter, permanently.

I've run many different tires in my 30+ years of driving, but the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S I'm running now on my other car are the best all-around tire I've ever had.

What did you do with the original Goodyears that came with car? I only have 500 miles on the car and I'm thinking of upgrading but I want to wait until I see how well these tires do when it snows.

Ours have about 11k miles on them and the tread wear isnt that bad at all.

OT: Why does GM have to use such weird tire sizes now? Not many tires are available in the 225/50/18 size.

What did you do with the original Goodyears that came with car? I only have 500 miles on the car and I'm thinking of upgrading but I want to wait until I see how well these tires do when it snows.

I can't tell you because my Malibu is a 1FL and came with 17" Hankooks. ;)

I do know I'd buy the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S again in a flash though. I have over 57,000 miles on them, and they appear to be just a bit more than 1/2 worn! This, and BMW's are notoriously hard on tires. At least mine is because I rarely slow down for corners.

I've got the stock 18" Hankooks on a 2LT. No problems so far except the pressure seems to flucuate quite a bit on a warm day. Maybe a 4 lb increase on a hot day. Tires seem to be wearing ok and the ride is alright. I've had my silverstone mettalic Malibu for 1 year and 2 months and only have 7,300 miles on it, so mileage isn't an issue so far. has the rotated just recently, wear seems normal and even.

BTW, I have an Enterprise rental 2009 LS (marked as such, really a 1FL) while mine is in the body shop for an oops. I checked the build date from the sticker on the driver's side door jamb to be a 9/08. This one has Firestone tires, my company car 1FL has the Hankooks. They must have switched. I like the hankooks much better, though I hate to admit it. The Firestones squeal a bit around fast corners that the Hankooks handle quietly. The Firestones also have a bit more road noise, but it's really minor with the good sound insulation of the car.

I have an 09 2LT 4 cylinder with the Goodyear LS2s and I was wondering if you guys have had issues with the tires having severe manufacturing flaws. I am on my second set of tires, since the tires that the car came from the factory with ALL had severe out of round symptoms. Even with my second set of tires I was told by the shop foreman that I will most likely need to get another 2 new tires for the car once I come back from the roadtrip I have planned for this weekend. Has anyone else had a bad experience with these 18 inch Eagle LS2 tires?? I am very dissapointed and I am thinking of writing a letter to GM and demanding them to put the much more superior Yokohama Avid TRZs on the car, since they seem to be almost identical in price, but seem to be rated 3rd best in class on tirearck's surveys.